


Cough Syrup

by Lilbug121



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Gen, Phase 2, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 20:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilbug121/pseuds/Lilbug121
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noodle and 2D are sick, and they get Murdoc sick too. Sleepy germy cuddles ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cough Syrup

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sick, so now Gorillaz get to be sick too.

"Two-Chi! Two-Chi it's not that early, come on, someone needs to take me to the drug store!" Noodle rasped as she banged on 2D's door. She had woken herself up earlier than intended with a coughing fit, and realized that not only was her voice shot but she couldn't breathe out of her nose, and everything about her felt unpleasant. She had been sick before of course, but not since she returned from Japan, so there was no medicine in her bathroom that wasn't meant for children and/or expired. 2D was normally up somewhat early, so she figured he was the best person to ask to take her to a drugstore at such a time. It was only 7:30, but their other 2 bandmates were not early risers in the slightest. In fact, 2D would usually either be up by now, or getting up soon. 

When he wouldn't answer, she decided to just walk in. They saw each other as brother and sister, and it was impossible to live with someone for as long as they had and not seen each other naked anyways. Plus, when the internet can see your every moment your sense of privacy is somewhat warped. Still, she closed her eyes as she entered and announced that she was coming in. When he didn't answer she opened her eyes and saw that he was curled up in his bed, as opposed to laying flat like usual, or sprawled out like when he went to bed drunk. Noodle shook him gently until he woke up, at which point his questions were quickly cut off by his own fit of coughing. It seemed that whatever Noodle caught, he did as well. 

"I woke you up to take me to get cold medicine, or else borrow some from you if you had it, but I guess you're sick too. We must've shared a water bottle or something." Noodle smiled, attempting to make light of their situation. "Push over. We're both sick, we might as well be sick together." 2D scooted accordingly, still seemingly in a half-asleep daze. Whatever cold they had seemed to be having a worse effect on 2D than Noodle, possibly because his health was never that great to start with. He never slept enough, he never ate enough, and he seemed to bounce between extremes of mellow and stressed; though he rarely got sick, when he did it was usually bad. 

"Whattimeisit?" he asked, his already unclear speech slurred by tiredness and sickness. Noodle informed him that it was, give or take, 7:30. He knew that he should get up, eat something and take his pills and get some cold medicine for them both because Noodle was still too young to drive and he had somehow passed the driving test through either a fluke or a miracle (or, more likely, a computer error, because his vision scores alone should have meant an automatic failure), but his bed was so warm, even more so now that Noodle was here, and he had been woken up from a dream he was sure would be very interesting to get back to. In the end his body decided for him, and he fell back to sleep snuggled around Noodle. Noodle too found herself succumbing to the urge to sleep, with her arms wrapped around the man as he nuzzled his head into her stomach, tucking his long legs up and securing them both in a warm and sleepy embrace. 

2D's alarm went off less than 2 hours later, and as he groped around for his alarm clock to hit the snooze button, Noodle woke up and grabbed his arm. They needed to get up, at the very least to get cold medicine. She turned off his alarm herself, and pulled the man from his bed. 

He was still more asleep than awake, stumbling through the bare basics of his morning routine like one of his beloved zombies. Noodle quickly came to realize that he was in no shape to drive, and started pouring over the contents of his medicine cabinet to see if he had anything they could take. He was terribly disorganized, and she had to sort through toothpaste tubes in various flavors and states of fullness, a handful of empty prescription bottles, several bottles of nailpolish, some expired tylenol, and a few things she wasn't sure _he_ even knew what they were before finding a half-full bottle of cough syrup. She made sure it wasn't expired, took a dose herself, and grimaced at the taste that they had the audacity to call cherry. She then heard a thud come from the shower and came to realize that 2D had not only managed to fall asleep, but had fallen in such a way that he barely missed taking a razor to the throat. She sprayed the suds out of his hair herself and dragged him out, deeming him a danger to himself unsupervised (making a decision many others have made in the past when he _wasn't_  sick). She managed to direct him towards getting some pants on, and pushed his migraine pills and the cough syrup into his hands. The taste of the syrup seemed to be what he needed to wake him up some, and he grimaced worse than Noodle had, frowning as if the medicine had decided it wanted to taste bad specifically to spite him. 

Giving up on keeping him awake, Noodle directed 2D back into his bed and the padded into the kitchen. It was Saturday, she realized, which meant that Russell would be running the errands that no one else was responsible enough to, and Murdoc never woke before noon if he could help it, which meant that her and 2D would be alone for at least a few hours. She poured them both some juice and went back to his room, deciding that sleep would be the best thing for her as well. He was already sound asleep when she got back, and she easily slipped into his bed. He sighed as their bodies made contact, as if he had been waiting for her, and curled his arms around her in a comforting manner-equal parts, it seemed, to comfort her and to comfort himself. She returned his affections, draping her arm over his side and resting her head on his chest. She fell asleep easily, the cough syrup taking effect and easing her soreness, and her rest was either dreamless or else the dreams were easily forgotten upon waking. 

The two remained this way for some time, until Noodle woke up a little after 2 and wanted something to eat. She checked the recommended dosage schedule on the cough syrup and took another dose, and considered waking 2D up to take more before deciding to let him sleep. When she came out to the common area, Murdoc was sitting on the couch and messing around lazily on a bass. He was about to ask where she had been all day (or at least the hour and a half he had been up), but after seeing her he quickly amended it to asking what the hell happened. When she told him she and 2D were both sick, he gave her the helpful advice of "don't die", and she almost laughed if her throat didn't hurt so bad. She ate lunch and decided to stay 'among the living' so to speak. When she sat down on the couch with a book she leaned against Murdoc without even thinking about it, as the action was very familiar to the both of them. She was very trusting and affectionate as a child and had always used her makeshift family as pillows when she could. He considered moving, only to get away from whatever illness she was carrying, but decided that if both her and 2D were sick he couldn't do much about it if he was going to catch it too. At some point she fell asleep like that, and less than half an hour later a very confused and very dehydrated 2D exited his room as well, bleary eyed and wrapped in a blanket. All he could fully process was that he fell asleep with a very warm Noodle cuddling with him, and woke up without her. Not in a position to think about much of anything other than he wanted someone warm to fall asleep with, he sat down on the other side of the couch and fell asleep almost immediately, leaning right against Murdoc's other side, effectively making the bassist the middle of a sleepy bacteria-riddled sandwich. Normally he would have hit 2D until he woke up and fucked off to who knows where, but he didn't want to wake Noodle up (and he had to admit, their combined warmth was nice). He sighed, resigning himself to his temporary fate of being cuddled against his will by his sickly bandmates, and arranged the blanket 2D had come in with around the three of them. He was warm, and an unpleasant combination of hungover and partially drunk, and the atmosphere was comfortable and sleepy. He too found himself nodding off, with only the distant fading though of "I'm going to catch this and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it" in his mind. 

Which he did, of course, and the three of them took up camp on the couch rather than return to their separate rooms. Noodle recovered quickly, being the youngest and healthiest of the three as well as having caught it the earliest. Russell was sure to hover and fret over her while she was ill, and she often found herself wondering how he managed not to catch it too. 2D slept through most of his illness, which spared him the suffering but also meant that he wasn't eating or drinking much, which was surely slowing his recovery. Noodle tried to wake him and get him to eat soup when she could, and he was well soon enough. Murdoc's cough lingered for some time, though he insisted that he was fine. He was the type to never admit any form of weakness, which she knew very well, so of course he would insist he was well when in fact he was not. He took the cold medicine eventually, claiming it was to get Noodle to stop worrying, but she could tell he was glad for an excuse that he didn't perceive as admitting defeat at the hands of a microbe.

From that point on the invitation to cuddle away a bad dream or an illness was always a clear and open one. Some took advantage of it more than others, and sometimes pride got in the way. But one thing stood, mutually understood; they were more than just a band. They were best friends, and they were a family, and whatever they were they were definitely greater than the sum of their parts. And most importantly, whether or not some of them would openly admit it, they all loved each other dearly. 


End file.
